The Doctor's Wife Novelisation
by Josman
Summary: The Doctor is ecstatic when he finds the last thing he ever expected to find, a Galifreyan distress signal. But the Doctor quickly finds himself drawn into a trap, with one of his oldest friends at the centre.
1. The Box Of Hope

**Author's notes: This story had several additional scenes, which were never filmed due to various measures of money and time. I can include some of them here.**

 **Disclaimer: I did not own Doctor Who. I will not own Doctor Who. I do not own Doctor Who. Tenses are difficult, aren't they?**

 **The Doctor's Wife**

 **Chapter 1: The Box Of Hope**

Ever since she was young, Idris had dreamed of travelling the stars. There was so much fun and adventure she felt she was missing out on. Then one day, a mysterious man had offered her the opportunity to come with him on his adventures in his amazing spaceship that was bigger on the inside.

Together, they'd travelled back and forth through space and time, seeking out the greatest centres of fun the universe had to offer.

But all too soon it had come to an end. They had become caught in a rifty thing which had shaken their machine badly. She'd been flung to the ground and fallen unconscious.

She was woken by a couple who called themselves Auntie and Uncle, in the midst of a desolate wreck site. They'd consoled her and told her that her friend and her ship hadn't made it. They said that they were all stranded there together, but that there was food enough to sustain them for some time.

After a few months together, Uncle had come up to her and told her that they'd found a way of summoning help, but it required someone to sacrifice themselves. Unfortunately, that had to be her.

"Must it be me?" She said as she was led to a podium.

"Yes, it's going to be you. I only wish I could go in your place, Idris. Nah, I don't, because it's really going to hurt." Said Uncle.

She heard some footsteps behind her and felt Nephew's cold hands on the sides of her head. "It's started. What will happen?"

"Oh. Er, Nephew will drain your mind and your soul from your body and leave your body empty." Said Auntie.

Idris could already feel a numbness spreading through her mind. "I'm sacred!"

"I expect so, dear. But soon you'll have a new soul. There'll be a Time Lord coming." Auntie smiled.

* * *

In a jungle on a much brighter world, the Doctor, Amy and Rory were hiding under a bush, listening carefully as the sounds of the tribe that were hunting them echoed all around.

They'd had the misfortune to land in a research station, which was under siege by the natives. The Doctor had persuaded the researchers to leave the natives alone and evacuated them. Only when they were watching them go did he realise that he hadn't planned out how the three of them were going to get away. As usual, this had resulted in a lot of running.

"How come we never land anywhere peaceful?" Said Rory. "You always land us in the middle of a war. It's like following Mels around."

"I don't plan it that way, it just sort of happens." Said the Doctor.

"You said you were taking us to the beaches of somewhere or other." Said Rory. "How did we end up here again?"

"The TARDIS is old, she malfunctions sometimes." The Doctor said sheepishly. "I'm going to see if the coast is clear.

As he went up to go, Rory took a look at his wife, who was staring into space. "You're thinking about it again?"

Amy sighed. "We saw him die."

"Yeah, in 200 years."

"It's still going to happen."

Rory nodded. Whilst he tried to put the situation in the back of his mind, neither of them were sure what to do. They'd seen the future Doctor die, and everything they looked at told them there was nothing they could do to stop it, but Amy was still furiously seeking one out. Both of them knew that telling the Doctor would do no good, more likely result in some speech about fatey waitey stuff.

Before they could say anything more, the Doctor returned. "I think I've found a way back to the TARDIS. Come along Ponds."

The three of them hurried through the orange trees once more. They'd barely got 30 feet before a dozen natives sprang up from the bushes all around them, pointing spears at them.

"They will make an excellent sacrifice to the rain gods." Said the chief.

The natives grabbed them and dragged them away, as the TARDIS team struggled in vain.

Suddenly, one of them pointed at the sky. "Look!"

From the treetops, emerged a glowing white box hovering and spinning though the air, until it came to a halt, bobbing about before the Doctor's awestruck face, glowing even more brightly.

"The gods are angry!" Cried a native, and started running. The panic spread through the others like a set of dominoes. Before long, they'd all scattered into the trees.

"I'll see if I can thank your gods later." Said Amy, then looked at the Doctor, who was turning the cube over in his hands, like a child with a new toy. "What is it Doctor?"

"Oh you little beauty. He grinned. "I've got mail!"

* * *

Back at the TARDIS, the Doctor was explaining further, as he fiddled with the controls. "Time Lord emergency messaging system. In an emergency, we'd wrap up thoughts in psychic containers and send them through time and space. Anyway, there's a living Time Lord still out there, and it's one of the good ones." He pointed to an Ourobouros, sketched on the side of the cube. "The mark of the Corsair. Fantastic bloke. He had that snake as a tattoo in every regeneration. Didn't feel like himself unless he had the tattoo. Or herself, a couple of times. Ooo, she was a bad girl." He gunned the temporal accelerator and the TARDIS set off with a loud bang.

"Oh, what is happening?" Cried Rory, as he clung to a rail against the sudden burst of speed.

"We're leaving the universe!" The Doctor laughed.

"How can you leave the universe?" Shouted Amy.

"With enormous difficulty! Right now I'm burning up TARDIS rooms to give us some welly. Goodbye, swimming pool. Goodbye, scullery. Sayonara, squash court seven."

Beneath them, the floor shook rolled and spun briefly. On the console, little circuits fizzled out and they heard the cloister bell tolling in the depths. But then, as suddenly as the chaos had started, it all stopped.

"Okay, where are we?" Said Amy.

"Outside the universe, where we've never, ever been." The Doctor replied in a hushed voice.

As he was saying this, all the lights went out in the TARDIS.

"Is that meant to be happening?" Said Rory.

The Doctor hurried forward and hammered on the controls. "The power, it's draining. Everything's draining. But it can't. That's, that's impossible."

"What's that?"

"It's as if the Matrix, the soul of the Tardis, has just vanished. Where would it go?"

* * *

Nephew released Idris and she collapsed to the ground, only to rise up again glowing gold, and gasping in a weird wheezing groaning noise. Auntie and Uncle looked on in concern.

* * *

The Doctor had looked around the TARDIS for a problem but found none. Eventually, he decided to sort that out later. The matrix shouldn't be too difficult to locate, and could be sorted out once they'd found the Corsair.

"So what kind of trouble's your friend in?" Said Amy.

"He was in a bind. A bit of a pickle. Sort of distressed." The Doctor said.

"Ah, you can't just say you don't know." Said Amy.

"But what is this place?" Said Rory. "A sort of scrap yard at the end of the universe?"

Scrap yard was a bit of a generous term. A scrap yard at least has a handful of cranes shifting everything into neat piles. This land just had heaps of assorted junk as far as the eye can see. All of it in various states of disintegration.

Its image wasn't helped by the muted green glow that permeated everything. There were no stars in the sky so none of them were yet sure how they could see at all.

"Not the end of the universe." Said the Doctor. "Outside of it."

"How can we be outside the universe?" Said Rory. "The universe is everything."

The Doctor thought for a moment. "Imagine a great big soap bubble with one of those tiny little bubbles on the outside."

"Okay."

"Well, it's nothing like that." He tapped the TARDIS. "Completely drained. Look at her."

"Wait. So we're in a tiny bubble universe, sticking to the side of the bigger bubble universe?"

"Yeah. No. But if it helps, yes. This place is full of rift energy. She'll probably refuel just by being here. Now, this place. What do we think, eh?" He jumped a couple of times and sniffed around. "Gravity's almost Earth normal, air's breathable, but it smells like..."

"Armpits." Muttered Amy.

"Armpits." He nodded.

Rory was prodding a washing machine amongst the junk. "What's all this stuff? Where's it come from?"

"Well, there's a rift. Now and then stuff gets sucked through it. Not a bubble, a plughole. The universe has a plughole and we've just fallen down it." He grinned at finding an analogy that was slightly more relevant.

"Thief!" A new voice shouted. They turned to see a bushy haired woman running towards them, shouting. "Thief! You're my thief!"

Behind her, two more people were running, dressed respectively in a battered Edwardian dress and a slightly more battered Foreign Legion uniform.

"She's dangerous! Guard yourselves!" Auntie warned them.

The younger woman hurried up to the Doctor and stood there staring at him, whilst twitching all over. "Look at you. Goodbye. No, not goodbye, what's the other one?" She abruptly grabbed him and kissed him hard, until the others pulled her off.

"Watch out. Careful. Keep back from her. Welcome, strangers. Lovely. Sorry about the mad person." The man held out a hand.

But the Doctor was more concerned with the strange woman. "Why am I a thief? What have I stolen?"

The woman tilted her head. "Me. You're going to steal me. No, you have stolen me. You are stealing me. Oh tenses are difficult, aren't they?"

"Oh. Oh, we are sorry, my dove. She's off her head. They call me Auntie."

"And I'm Uncle. I'm everybody's Uncle. This is Idris. Just keep back from this one. She bites!"

"Do I?" Said the woman. "Excellent!" Without warning, she jumped forward and lightly bit the Doctor's shoulder. Amy and Rory pulled the two of them apart and stood protectively between her and the Doctor.

But Idris didn't seem phased at all. "Biting's excellent. It's like kissing, except there's a winner."

"So sorry, she's doolally." Said Uncle.

"No, I'm not doolally. I'm, I'm..." She softly waved her arms up and down like she was trying to grasp at something. "It's on the tip of my tongue... I've just had a new idea about kissing! Come here, you."

But Auntie grabbed her. "No, Idris, no!"

Idris softened slightly, as she peered at the Doctor. "Oh but you're angry. The boxes will make you angry."

The Doctor was confused. "The what? What boxes?"

But she got distracted. "Oh, ho, no. Your chin is hilarious!" Idris now turned her attention to Rory. "It means the smell of dust after rain." She said, as though answering a question.

"What does?" Said Rory.

"Petrichor."

"I didn't ask."

"No, but you will."

"No, no, Idris. I think you should have a rest." Said Auntie.

"Rest. Yes, yes. Good idea. I'll just see if there's an off switch." She collapsed against a washing machine.

"Is that it? She's dead now, so sad." Said Uncle with obviously false sincerity.

Rory bent down to check. "She's still breathing."

Uncle made an effort to keep his face blank. "Nephew, put Idris somewhere where she can't bite anyone, would you?"

Amy and Rory looked up at Nephew, and saw a horrible bald-headed creature, with slits for ears and an unsightly mass of tentacles where they'd have thought its mouth would be. They jumped back in alarm but the Doctor bounded forward.

"Oh, no, it's all right. It's an Ood. Oods are good. Love an Ood. Hello, Ood. Can't you talk?" He looked down at the sphere it carried. "Oh, I see. It's damaged. May I? It might just be on the wrong frequency."

He adjusted the frequency with his sonic. Abruptly, the sphere began to emit the Corsair's distress signal. But there were others underneath...

"If you are receiving this message, please help me. Send a signal to the High Council of the Time Lords on Gallifrey. Tell them that I am still alive. I don't know where I am. I'm on some rock-like planet..."

"Is there anyone who can hear me? My craft is damaged. I need urgent assistance, repeat..."

"We have been caught in a temporal rift. Unable to escape. We're being dragged downwards..."

"Please help us. Quickly..."

There were many more voices, but they were coming too fast to discern.

"What was that? Was that him?" Said Rory.

The Doctor had gone silent. "No, no. It's picking up something else. But that's, that's not possible. That's, that's. Who else is here? Tell me. Show me. Show me!"

"Only the three… four of us." Said Auntie. "Oh, and there's house of course."

"The house?" Said the Doctor. "What house?"

"House is all around you, my sweets. You are standing on him. This is the House. This world. Would you like to meet him?"

"Meet him?" Said Rory.

"Yes. Let's go and meet house." Said the Doctor.

"What's wrong?" Said Rory. "What were those voices?"

"Time Lords. It's not just the Corsair. Somewhere close by there are lots and lots of Time Lords."

* * *

By the time Nephew had placed her in the cage, she was already reviving, flexing her muscles like a newborn child. "I'm, I'm... Big word, sad word. Why is that word so sad? No. Will be sad. Will be sad."

* * *

Auntie and Uncle led the TARDIS team through some of the windy pathways in the junk. They lent a helping hand on some of the more difficult sections, but it quickly became apparent that they were also patting them down and looking over them in a slightly cannibalistic way. They made a note to keep one eye on them whenever possible.

Eventually, they were led into a large shack, which looked like it would have been a spaceship once.

"Come. Come, come. You can see the House and he can look at you, and he." Uncle showed him to a grate in the floor, beneath which, a green glow was emanating.

"I see, this asteroid is sentient." Said the Doctor.

"We walk on his back, breathe his air, eat his food…"

"Smell his armpits." Amy muttered.

Suddenly, Auntie and Uncle went rigid, as a new voice spoke through them. It sounded deep, but gentle and eloquent. "And do my will. You are most welcome, travellers."

"Doctor, is that the asteroid talking?" Said Amy.

The Doctor nodded. "Yes. So you're like a sea urchin. Hard outer surface, that's the planet we're walking on. Big, squashy, oogly thing inside, that's you."

"That is correct, Time Lord." Said House.

"So you've met Time Lords before?"

"Many travellers have come through the rift, like Auntie and Uncle and Nephew. I repair them when they break."

"So there are Time Lords here, then?"

"Not any more, but there have been many TARDISes on my back in days gone by."

The Doctor bit his lip, trying to equate what they were saying to the number of distress signals he'd clearly heard. "Well, there won't be any more after us. Last Time Lord. Last TARDIS."

"A pity. Your people were so kind. Be here in safety, Doctor. Rest, feed, if you will."

"We're not actually going to stay here Doctor?" Rory hissed, as Auntie and Uncle returned to normal.

"Well, it seems like a friendly planet. Literally. Mind if we poke around a bit?"

"Go where you want." Said Auntie. She looked at Amy. "Look, House loves you."

"Come on then, gang. We're just going to, er, see the sights."

* * *

Her body was caught in this bipedal form, anchored to the surface of this rock, only able to move forward at one second per second, and along the ground at 12 miles an hour, relative to the surface. Despite these limitations, her mind was still everywhere, everywhen and in every language.

"Are there a see zero that ito emo we. Ah! What was that? Do fish have fingers? Like a nine year old trying to rebuild a motorbike. What am I saying? Why am I saying that? Thief? Where's my thief? Thief!"

* * *

The Doctor heard her shouting, but thought little of it.

"We're not really going to be staying here for too long, are we?" Said Amy. "This place gives me the creeps."

"There may be timelords here." Said the Doctor. "I have to see if I can find them."

"Doctor. You told me about your people and you told me what you did." Said Amy.

The Doctor, at this point, became very interested in an 88th century escape pod that was lying nearby. "Maybe I can save them."

Suddenly, it dawned on Amy. "You want to be forgiven, don't you?"

"Don't we all?"

Amy sighed. "What can we do?"

"I left my sonic screwdriver in my jacket. Go back and fetch it, would you."

"But you're wearing your jacket."

"I meant my other jacket."

"How many do you have?" Said Rory.

"Okay, I'll get it. But Doctor, listen to me. Don't get emotional because that's when you make mistakes." Said Amy. She turned to go. "Rory, look after him."

The Doctor went in the other direction. "Rory, look after Amy."

Rory looked between the two of them and made a decision.

Amy was not pleased when he caught up with her near the TARDIS door. "I thought I told you to look after him."

"He'll be fine." Said Rory. "He's a timelord."

"It's just what they're called. It doesn't mean he knows what he's doing." Amy said, as she pushed the door open.

The two of them stepped in and closed the doors. They were too late to see the cloud of sickly green gas rising from the ground and circling the base of the TARDIS.

Uncle watched them from a distance. "Shame. I quite liked them."


	2. The Madwoman In The Blue Box

**Chapter 2: The Madwoman In A Blue Box**

As the Doctor picked his way through the tunnels beneath the scrap, he heard his phone ring and answered it.

"We're here." Said Amy. "Your sonic's in your jacket you said?"

"Yeah, just keep looking round for it." Said the Doctor, as he twirled the sonic round in his hand, idly pressing the buttons.

* * *

At the same time, the door to the TARDIS slammed shut.

"Did you do that?" Said Amy.

"I didn't do anything." Said Rory. "So... Jacket?"

* * *

The tunnel the Doctor was in opened up into a much larger space. Some discarded equipment told him that Auntie and Uncle must use this area for storing all those little bits and pieces people are convinced they will use again at some point. There was also a washing machine there, though clearly it couldn't work here.

He closed his eyes and listened again. He could faintly hear the sounds of timelords nearby. He spun around and tried to triangulate the direction. It led him to a patched up curtain, which hung across an opening. He stepped through, into a space about 2 metres in diameter. "Well you can't all be in here."

But the sound felt even closer now. He listened again. It drew him to a cupboard in the wall. His hearts sank hard as he realised what he would find, but had to open it to be sure.

Sure enough, when he opened it, he saw a stack of message boxes. Each one was emiting the voice of a timelord, desperately calling for help.

He didn't need to turn round to know that Auntie and Uncle would have tailed him. "Just admiring your Time Lord distress signal collection. Nice job. Brilliant job. Really thought I had some friends here, but this is what the Ood translator picked up. Cries for help from the long dead. How many Time Lords have you lured here the way you lured me, and what happened to them all?"

Auntie gulped. "House is kind. House is wise. House..."

"House repairs you, I know!" The Doctor advanced on them. "Repairs you how?" He pointed at Uncle. "You've got the eyes of a 20 year old."

"Thank you." Uncle shrugged.

"No. Oh, no, I mean it literally. Your eyes are thirty years younger than the rest of you." He pulled of Uncle's legionnaire's hat to reveal a Kirian ear, awkwardly stitched in place. "Your ears don't match, your right arm is two inches longer than you're left, and how's your dancing? Because you've got two left feet. Patchwork people. You've been repaired and patched up so often, I doubt there's anything left of what used to be you. I had an umbrella like you once." He rounded on Auntie and grabbed her arm, once he saw the ouroboros tatooed on the forearm.

Auntie promptly grabbed at the join. "Careful. It's been a good arm for me that."

"Corsair." The Doctor hissed.

"He was a big strapping bloke, wasn't he Uncle?"

"Big bloke." Uncle nodded.

"I got the arm. Uncle got the spine and the kidneys."

The Doctor practically trembled with rage. "You gave me hope, and then you took it away. That's enough to make anyone dangerous. God knows what it will do to me. Basically, run!"

Auntie and Uncle scurried away. As they went, he heard the man saying. "Poor timelord. Too late. House it too clever."

The Doctor looked back at the voices. He had audiovisual recordings of Galifrey back in the TARDIS, but he tried not to listen to it too often. It filled him with too much guilt. He tried to mutter an apology, but quickly decided nothing good could come from listening to his people's voices and left.

His phone rang again. " No sonic screwdriver. Also the doors seemed to have locked behind us. Rory thinks there's a perfectly innocent explanation, but I think you lied to us." Said Amy's voice.

"Timelord stuff. Needed you out the way."

"What, we're not good enough for you?"

But the Doctor wasn't really listening. "The boxes will make you angry."

"Stay put! Stay exactly where you are." He rung off.

* * *

"Don't really have much choice." Said Amy. Hearing the other end go dead, she hung up and began pacing. "He's not trusting us and he's being emotional. This is bad. This is very bad."

"Yeah, I think it is." Said Rory. He looked at the doors, and saw a green glow shining through, from where the green fog had risen as high as the windows.

"Sometimes I hate being right." Muttered Amy.

* * *

The Doctor hurried into the brig, where he found Idris meditating in a cage with a hexagonal pattern in the bars. "How did you know about the boxes? You said they'd make me angry. How did you know?"

"Ah. My thief." She said.

"Who are you?"

"It's about time."

"I don't understand. Who are you?" He asked again.

"Do you not know me? Just because they put me in here."

The Dotor rattled the bars. "They said you were dangerous."

She twitched. "Not the cage, stupid. In here." She patted her cheeks. "They put me in here. I'm the... Oh, what do you call me? We travel. I go..." She opened her mouth and breathed in the sound of the universe flying by.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "The TARDIS?"

"Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. That's it. Names are funny."

The Doctor laughed. "No you're not, you're a bitey mad lady. The TARDIS is up and downey stuff in a big blue box."

"Yes, that's me. I was a museum piece when you were young. The first time you totched my console, I heard you say..."

"That you were the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen." The Doctor finished, then realised what he'd said.

"And then you stole me. And I stole you."

The Doctor paled. "I borrowed you."

"Borrowing implies the eventual intent to return the thing that was stolen. What makes you think I would ever give you back?"

"You're the TARDIS?"

"Yes."

"My TARDIS?"

"My Doctor! Oh!" She looked at her wrist, where a watch might have gone. "We've now reached the part of the conversation where you let me out."

Sure enough, the Doctor soniced the cage open and inquisitively looked this woman, the TARDIS apparently, up and down.

She imitated his visual inspection. "Are all humans like this?"

"Like what?"

"So much bigger on the inside. Oh, what's that word? It's so big. So sad."

"But why? Why pull the living soul from a Tardis and pop it in a tiny human head? What does it want you for?"

"Oh, he doesn't want me."

"How do you know?"

"House eats TARDISes."

"How do you know that?"

"I don't know, it's something I heard you say."

"When."

Apparently she had difficulty grasping the idea of a timeline that ran in a set direction. "In the future."

"House eats TARDISes?"

"There you go!" She raised an eyebrow. "What are fish fingers?"

"When do I say that?"

"Any second."

The Doctor focused on her first statement. "Of course. House feeds on rift energy and Tardises are bursting with it. And not raw, all lovely and cooked. Processed food. Mmm, fish fingers."

"Do fish have fingers?"

"But you can't just delete a TARDIS, it would destroy you. Unless..."

"Unless you delete the matrix first."

The Doctor frowned. "So it deleted you?"

"But House can't just delete a Tardis' consciousness. That would blow a hole in the universe. So he pulls out the Matrix, sticks it in a living receptacle and then it feeds off the remaining Artron energy. Oh. You were about to say all that. I don't suppose you have to now."

But the Doctor had more alarming concerns. "I sent Amy and Rory in there. They'll be eaten!" He ran off, franticly hitting buttons on the phone.

* * *

"Doctor, something's wrong." Said Amy, as she repeatedly pulled the door release leaver and Rory tried shoulder bumping the door.

"It's House! He's after the TARDIS! Get out!" The Doctor shouted.

"We can't, you locked the doors remember?" Said Amy.

"But I've unlocked them!"

"You stupid well haven't!"

At this point, the green gas began to pour through the roof of the TARDIS. The cloister bell tolled once more.

"Doctor, I don't like this!" Cried Amy.

* * *

The Doctor hurried up to the TARDIS, the non humanoid part of it, and hammered on the doors, but found them locked and his key wouldn't work. He snapped his fingers several times, but all to no avail. Finally, he just screamed "OPEN!" At the doors.

But then, he heard a sound he never wanted to hear from the outside. The sound of the engines powering up. With a rush of wind, the TARDIS dematerialised, leaving him stranded and his companions kidnapped.

He tried the phone again. "Amy? Rory?" But there was no answer. "I actualy don't know what to do. That's a new feeling!" Realising what he'd just said, he slapped himself and went to do something.

* * *

 **Author's notes: There are several names various sources give for the human TARDIS and I had to think a lot about which to use.. From the next chapter, I'll be referring to the human TARDIS as the Tardis (mostly lower case,) while the capsule itself is the TARDIS (upper case.)**


	3. The Valley Of The Dead

**Chapter 3: The Valley Of The Dead**

Amy and Rory held hands as they tried to get anything on the console working. But nothing responded. They probably couldn't have got it to land if the controls were.

"Look, whatever happens, we're together." Said Rory. "And we're in the TARDIS, so we're safe."

"You're half right." House's voice mused from all around them. "You are in the TARDIS. I should have done this a long time ago. So, Amy, Rory, tell me. Why should I not just kill you now?"

* * *

The Doctor kicked one of the smaller pieces of scrap in frustration. "It's gone!"

"Eaten?" Said the Tardis.

"No, just gone. He's left. Hijacked it. But why?"

On the other side of the shack, Auntie and Uncle were settling onto little piles of damp cushions. "It's time for us to go. And keep together."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Go? What do you mean, go? Where are you going?"

"Well, we're dying my love. Time for Uncle and me to pop off now." Auntie said with the air of someone who'd announced they were just off down the shops.

"I'm against it." Uncle shrugged.

"It's your fault." Auntie continued. "You told House yours was the last TARDIS. Scince there's no more coming in, he's gone off to your universe to find some."

"He won't find any." Said the Doctor.

"House'll think of something. House is clever like that." Auntie said, before dropping dead.

As the Doctor hurried over to check her pulse, Uncle sat up. "Actually, I feel alight." He said, and died.

The Doctor could find no life signs in either of them. "Wait! Wait! You can't just die!" Now there was no-one who could show him a way off this rock.

The Tardis, meanwhile, was looking at her wrist. She wasn't sure why. But her passengers tended to do it when they thinking about time. "We need to go where I landed Doctor. Quickly."

"Why?"

"Because we are there in three minutes. We need to go... Now!" She set off running, only to clutch her side and double over in pain. "How long do these bodies last?"

The Doctor ran his sonic over her. "You're dying."

She snatched the screwdriver off him. "Yes, of course I'm dying. I don't belong in a flesh body. I could blow the casing in no time. No, stop it. Don't get emotional. Hmm. That's what the orangey girl says. You're the Doctor. Focus."

"On what? How? I'm a madman with a box, without a box. I'm stuck down the plughole at the end of the universe on a stupid old junkyard!" Suddenly, something clicked. "Ooo!"

"Ooo what?" That was what the orangey girl would say.

"I'm not."

"Not what?"

"It's not a junkyard. Don't you see?"

"What is it then?" She could sense he was getting close.

"It's a Tardis junkyard. Come on." He led her off, before having a thought. "By the way, do you have a name?"

"Seven hundred years. Finally he asks."

"But what should I call you?"

"I think you call me... Sexy." She smiled.

The Doctor looked awkwardly away. "Only when we're alone."

"We are alone."

"Fair point. Come on, Sexy."

* * *

Everything inside the once friendly TARDIS was now glowing a sickly green. Amy and Rory had backed up against each other for want of anything safer to back up against. House was sounding unnervingly pleased with the new arrangement. "I have corridors! There's so much to learn about my new home. But you haven't answered my question, children."

"Question?" Said Rory.

"Why shouldn't I just kill you now?"

"Well... um..." Said Amy. "Is there any chance you're actually a pacifist?"

"You'll have to try harder than that." Said House.

She gave Rory her best _any ideas?_ face.

Rory said the first thing that came into his head. "Because killing us now wouldn't be fun." Realising he was on to something, he pushed on. "You need fun, don't you? That was what Auntie and Uncle were for. You needed to watch someone suffer. I had a PE teacher just like you. And killing us quickly wouldn't be entertaining."

House hummed in a way that would have precipitated a nod if he'd had a head. "So entertain me. Run."

Amy and Rory obediently raced out of the console room and down the TARDIS corridors.

* * *

The Doctor stood on a ridge, overlooking the scrap below. Next to him, the Tardis held her arms up as though in prayer, while she uttered a string of tencho jargon. Once she'd finished, the Doctor watched as many of the chameleon circuits in the junk items below flickered to life for a brief minute.

Down below, the rough collection of escape pods, washing machines, New York taxis and Karabraxos strong boxes, began to balloon outwards and morph, until they were as near to the true form of a time capsule as the valley could safely contain.

"Valley of half eaten TARDISs." Said the Doctor. "You know what I'm thinking?"

"That all my sisters are dead. And we're looking over the remains." She said sadly.

"No. I was not thinking that."

"You were thinking that we can build a working TARDIS out of the remains of hundreds of different models and escape. And you don't care that its impossible."

"Nothing's impossible as long as we're alive. Amy and Rory need me. So yeah. We're going to build a working TARDIS."

* * *

Amy and Rory hurried through the hexagonal TARDIS corridors. They weren't really sure where they were hoping to run to, they just hoped House might somehow get confused if they kept moving. Or at least, they may be able to find some part of the TARDIS he couldn't access.

"Are we having fun yet?" Said House in that same jarringly calm voice. "I'm rather enjoying the sensation of having you running around inside me."

Amy was in the lead. As she ran, she felt as though the floor was sloping increasingly steeply to the right. Before long, they were running on the wall instead. "I've modified the corridor anti grav. Do be careful." Said House.

The tilt continued, bringing them across the ceiling and onto the other wall.

Amy and Rory kept running, jumping over the support beams that ran around the walls. As Amy went to jump one beam, she skidded to a halt as she realised that there was a side corridor on the far side. Thanks to the tilt of the gravity, it was a 75 degree drop, which seemed to stretch on for miles.

Not wanting them to just turn back, House made heavy footsteps echo from the corridor behind them, panicking Amy and Rory into acting irrationally and pressing on.

Fortunately, there was a support beam round the edge of this hole, and Amy and Rory were able to carefully edge their way round and keep running.

* * *

The Doctor dragged a wall panel across the ground, one of those ones with the round things dotted across it. He got back to the site he and the Tardis were working from, to find her looking over some circuits he'd assembled.

"Bond the tube directly into the tachyon diverter." She said.

"Yes, I have rebuilt the TARDIS before!" He shouted back.

The Tardis looked indignant. You're like a nine year old trying to build a motorbike in his bedroom. And you never read the instructions."

"I don't need any instructions!"

"The sign on my door. You've been walking past it for 400 years. What does it say?"

"It says _pull to open._ "

"And what do you do?"

"I push."

"Every time. Police boxes open outwards!"

"I think I've earned the right to open my front doors any way I wish."

"Your front doors?" She laughed. "Do you have any idea how childish that sounds?"

"You are not my mother!"

"You are not my child."

The Doctor dropped the panel and marched up to her, to point in her face. "You know, since we're talking with mouths, not something that happens very often, can I just say that you have never been very reliable!"

She frowned. "And you have?"

The Doctor turned to go back to his work. "You didn't always take me where I wanted to go."

"No. But I always took you where you needed to go."

The Doctor stopped dead and turned back to her amazed. "You did. Look at us talking! Wouldn't it be great if we could always talk, even when you're stuck inside that box?"

"We can't. You know I'm not constructed that way. I exist across time and space. While you talk, and run around, and bring home strays..." She gasped and buckled at the knees once more.

The Doctor caught her. "You Ok?"

"One of the kidneys has already failed. It doesn't matter. We need to finish the console."

The Doctor looked at the machine he'd built so far. It was intended to be a rough reconstruction of the console room, with a stand alone console in the centre (No time, nor funding, to build an elaborate arrangement to connect the time rotor to the ceiling.) Unfortunately, he'd only had time to assemble two of the six wall panels he'd need. With the time it had taken him to drag them, it would be impossible to assemble them all in the time. "Taking off without a full shell. It won't be safe."

"This body had about eighteen minutes left." Said the Tardis. "This dimension will reach absolute zero in three hours. Safe is relative."

The Doctor nodded. "Well then. Let's get going, eh old girl?"

* * *

Amy ran ahead of her husband, since she was mildly faster. She quickly came to regret the small gap between them when she heard him shout her name and spun round, just in time to see a bulkhead slam shut between them.

"No!" She shouted, hammering on the door.

"Amy!" He hammered from the far side. "Amy!"

"Amy!" His voice called again, but this time form down the corridor. She followed it and rounded a corner. There, even though it was geometrically impossible, she found Rory, slumped against the bulkhead, calling her name much more sombrely than a minute before. "Amy!"

"Rory?"

"Amy!" He jumped up. "Where have you been?"

"I was just round there."

"But you were gone hours!"

"No I..." She realised that House could be using some time dilation effect of the TARDIS against them. "It's House. He's messing with the TARDIS. Come on."

They hurried down the corridor. They'd barely got ten feet before a bulkhead slammed shut between them once more.

* * *

The Doctor went to pick up the intact time rotor he'd found, only to see the Tardis holding it up for him. They'd quickly become a well oiled team, as though they'd been working together for years, (which, the Doctor reminded himself, they had.)

"How is this going to make it through the rift?" He muttered. "We're almost done. Time rotor... retroscope... er, blue thingy..."

The Tardis, meanwhile was busy examining a wire coat hanger. "Do you know why I chose you all those years ago?"

"I chose you. You were unlocked. The breaker practically helped me along."

"Of course she did. I made things hard for her, and I left the doors unlocked. I wanted to see the universe, so I stole a timelord and ran away. And you were the only one mad enough."

The Doctor, meanwhile, finished his work and took a step back to admire it. "Right, perfect, what do you think?"

They watched as one of the quantum dampers came loose with a little pop.

"That's ok, always happens." Said the Doctor. "Hold on." He grabbed some velvet rope and some duct tape.

* * *

Amy cautiously paced through the corridors, hoping Rory would appear round the corner once more.

"Amy?" Said a shaky voice behind her.

She turned and saw a figure curled up against one of the buttresses. But he was old and wrinkled. His hair and beard had grown and tangled, and he clearly hadn't washed in many years.

"Oh my... Rory?" She said.

"You left me." He said, without looking up. "How could you leave me?"

"How long have you been here?"

"Two thousand years, I waited for you. How could you do it again?"

"I'm so sorry Rory, I didn't mean to..."

Rory banged his head against the wall. "They come for me at night. Every single night, they come for me and they hurt me. Amy, they hurt me over and over and over and over..."

"Rory..."

Rory stood up, eyes full of fury. "How could you leave me? How could you do that to me?"

Amy backed away as he advanced. She tried not to think about everything Rory had been through since she'd drawn him into the TARDIS. Particularly the two thousand years he'd had to guard the Pandorica. The universal reboot thing had made it go by before it could sink in, but now House had found a way to confront her with it in its full horror.

She was almost glad when a bulkhead slammed shut between them.

* * *

The Doctor secured anything that seemed loose with duct tape, and attached the velver ropes to use as elaborate grab handles. He took a look at the Tardis, who was examining her new face in the mirror on the console, before setting the coordinates. "Right. Off we go. Follow that TARDIS." He hit the dematerialisation controls but nothing happened. "Oh no, come on. There's rift energy everywhere. You can do it. Okay, diverting all power to thrust. Let's be having you!" This time, there was a small bang and a stream of sparks shot out.

"What's wrong?" Said the Tardis.

"It can't hold the charge. It can't even start. There's no power. I've got nothing."

She smiled. "Oh, my beautiful idiot. You've got what you've always had. You've got me." She kidded her fingers and touched them to the time rotor. A cloud of golden light travelled from her mouth, to her fingers, to the machine, which promptly roared into life.

Around the machine, a rough orange bubble formed, through which they could see the scrapheap fading around them.

* * *

Amy was sick in her stomach at the thought of what might be round the next corner, but she had to look anyway. What she saw was worse than she'd imagined. Every free space in the walls was covered in the same four words.

 _Hate Amy_

 _Die Amy_

 _Kill Amy_

 _Die Amy Die!_

All over the walls, the beams, the floors, and across the ceiling. At the centre of it all was a rapidly decaying corpse, dressed in Rory's clothes.

 **Author's Notes: Once more, I'm inviting readers to suggest future novelisations.**


	4. The Long Hello

**Chapter 4: The Long Hello**

"Noooooo!" Amy screamed, sinking to her knees. "No!"

"Amy!" Rory shouted behind her.

She spun round and saw him standing there. She looked back at the corridor and saw that the corpse and the writing had gone. Amy promptly leapt up, and hugged him very tightly. But only briefly, because they knew they had to keep running.

* * *

The Doctor whooped in delight as they shot through the pocket dimension. As they approached the edge, the vortex flares grew in intensity and it was all the Doctor could do to keep the intact watt pointed forwards to divert the flares around them in greenish yellow streams.

"We're locked on." The Tarids announced. "They'll need to lower the shields when we get there."

"Can you get a message to Amy?" He shouted back.

"Which ones Amy? The pretty one?" She placed her fingertips on the sides of the mirror and concentrated. A face began to appear.

* * *

Amy and Rory were climbing a ladder, when he suddenly gasped and rubbed his temple.

"What is it?" Said Amy, fearing another mind game.

"I think I'm getting a message-thing."

"Hello pretty!" Announced that crazy lady from the junk yard.

"What on Earth is that?"

The Doctor leaned across. "Don't worry, telepathic messaging! Wait, that's Rory." He disappeared as he went to adjust something.

"You need to deactivate the shields from one of the old control rooms! I'm putting the route in your head now! When you get there use the purple slider on the nearest panel to lower the shields!"

"The pretty one?" He heard the Doctor saying off mirror.

"You'll have about twelve seconds before the room goes into phase with the invading Matrix. I'll send you the pass key when you get there. Good luck." With that, she vannished.

"What was that?" Said Amy.

"It was that woman from the junkyard, and the Doctor."

"The Doctor?" She perked up.

"We have to keep moving."

* * *

The pressure on the wall was causing the join between two sections to creak alarmingly, the Doctor tried angling it in a way that would take some pressure off that section, but it made the machine even harder to keep steady.

Through the haze, he could see the TARDIS struggling against the outer wall of the time vortex. As he'd hoped, House hadn't worked out a way back into the universe yet. "How can they take the shields down? House is in the control room!"

"I sent them to one of the old control rooms!" The Tardis said proudly.

"There are no old control rooms, they were all deleted!"

"I archived them for neatness!" Shouted back. "I've got about 30 now!"

"But I've only changed the desktop, oh, a dozen times!"

"Some are in the future!"

"You can't archive something that hasn't happened yet!"

"You can't!"

* * *

Amy and Rory hurried along another corridor, only for Amy to stop abruptly. "What happened to the lights?"

"The lights are fine." He said., but his wife continued to wave her arms around like a blind woman. He also noticed that her pupils had dilated fully. Apparently, it was dark for her, but not for him. "It's House, messing with our heads again." He heard a little clang round the corner and decided to investigate. "Stay there a second."

"What is it, what?"

"Just hang on."

"I can hardly see, you idiot!" She watched as the dull figure of Rory moved round the corner. There was a thump and a gasp.

"Rory?" She said uncertainly.

"I'm fine." She heard him say, with a hint of embarrassment. "Come towards my voice."

Amy stumbled forward, feeling her way along the wall. "What happened?"

"I hit my head. Come on. Come towards my voice."

Amy edged round the corner. She didn't notice the unconscious form of Rory on the floor. She just heard his voice, very close, saying. "Reach out your hand."

She did, and felt a slimy mass of tentacles around the place the voice had come from. At the same time two eyes lit up green in front of her and she screamed. She didn't know what it planned to do, but it couldn't be good.

House, at this point, turned the lights back on and she saw Nephew reaching out for her.

She stumbled backwards, accidentally reviving Rory with her foot. He jumped up and grabbed her to guide her away. The two of them fled down the corridor.

* * *

As the Doctor closed in on the TARDIS, little gaps were appearing in the shield. It was increasingly hard to dodge around them. "Keep going! You're doing it, you sexy thing!" He laughed.

"You do call me Sexy!" Shouted the Tardis. "Is that my name?"

"You bet it is!"

* * *

Amy snatched her hand away from Rory. "I can see now Rory!"

"It was that Ood thing." He said. "And it's still coming for us."

At the end of the corridor, they found another door.

"What is this place?" Said Amy.

"Don't know. But she told us to come here. She said she'd send us a pass code when we got here.

"As if on cue, the woman came into his head again. "Crimson, eleven, delight, petrichor."

"Crimson, eleven, delight, petrichor. What, do I have to say it?" He turned to the doors. "Crimson, eleven, delight, petrichor." But the doors wouldn't move. "I said it Didn't I?" He tried wrenching the doors apart, as Nephew's footsteps got louder.

"Petrichor." Amy pondered. "She said it means the smell of dust after rain. The TARDIS is telepathic. You don't say it, you think it. OK. Crimson..." She thought of a crimson sea she'd seen on the planet Barcelona. "Eleven..." She thought about her eleventh birthday cake. "Delight..." She thought of her wedding day. "Petrichor..." She thought of her last walk in Letchworth forest, after it had been raining recently.

"He's coming." Rory pointed at Nephew, emerging round the corner.

But Amy kept focusing on the sequence. _Red sea. Birthday candles. Wedding day. Damp dust. Sea. Candles. Wedding. Dust. Sea, candles, wedding, dust._

Finally, the doors slid open, revealing a room with a very coral theme running throughout. But a column, similar to the one in the main control room stood in the centre.

"What is this place? Some sort of alternate console room." Said Amy, as they hurried forward and hit all the controls they'd been told to. "Shields down."

* * *

The shell of the mini capsule was beginning to crumple round the edges, leaving them less and less space to stand. At the same time, the lack of all sorts of stabilisation components was putting an endless strain on those they could use. Little columns of smoke were seeping out on the console.

"It's not going to hold!" Shouted the Tardis.

* * *

House's voice was quietly angry. That only seemed to make him more threatening. "How did you find this place? It's not on my internal schematic. Never mind. I thought I could keep you as pets. But now you've proved yourselves a nuisance. Nephew, dispose of them."

Nephew advanced forward, raising his sphere, ready to suck their minds. Amy and Rory backed away. But they were so exhausted from running around in the corridors, not to mention so many mind games, that they didn't fancy their chances of outrunning the Ood.

Just then, the woman came into his head once more. "We're breaking through into that room! Get out of the way or you'll be atomised!"

"Where are you coming in?" Said Rory.

"I don't know!"

"Oh, great!"

He looked back at the Ood, still advancing on them. Just then, its image was replaced with a brilliant orange light. A huge bubble appeared in the room, which faded to reveal the Doctor and the woman clinging onto the console in the middle of a perfectly spherical crater in the floor. As they landed, the wall finally collapsed, while the console went out with one last shower of sparks.

"Doctor!" Cried Amy, as she helped him out of the hole.

He then helped the Tardis out. "Not good." She was saying. "How do you walk around in these things?"

"Doctor, who is she?" Said Amy.

"She's the Tardis." Said the Doctor. "Except she's a woman. She's a woman. And she's my Tardis."

Amy and Rory stared at her. "She's the Tardis?"

"And a woman."

"Did you wish really hard?"

"Not like that!" The Doctor said awkwardly.

The Tardis used one of the pillars to pull herself to her feet. "Hello. I'm... Sexy."

Amy smirked at the Doctor.

"Just... shut up." Said the Doctor.

"The environment has been breached. Nephew, kill them." Said House.

They'd forgotten about Nephew. They looked around in alarm, but couldn't see him anywhere. "Where is he? He was standing right there." Said Rory, pointing to the crater the console was sitting in.

"Ah." Said the Doctor. "In that case, he'll have been redistributed."

"Redistributed where?" Said Amy.

"Into atomic form. You're breathing him. Another Ood I failed to save."

Amy gagged.

"Doctor." Said House. "I was not expecting you."

"Well, that my thing. Big old unexpected me."

"The question is, now that you're here, what should I do with you? I can increase the gravity..."

The group suddenly got a feeling, like the floor beneath them was rapidly accelerating upwards, flinging them all down and pinning them there. Seconds later, it stopped. Most of them got up, but the Tardis remained where she was, looking weak. Rory went to check her vitals.

"...or I could evacuate the air from this room."

A massive wind rushed them, making it very difficult to breathe. It all flodded back seconds later, but the Tardis was even worse as a result.

"You really don't wanna do that." The Doctor gasped for air.

"Why not? Why shouldn't I just kill you now?"

"Because I'm your only chance of making it through this alive."

"Go on."

"Listen to your engines. Just listen to them. You don't have the thrust and you know it. Right now I'm your only hope for getting out of your little bubble through the rift, and into my universe. And mine's the one with the food in. You only have to promise us not to kill us."

"You can't be serious." Said Amy.

"I am serious. I'm sure House is an entity of its word."

"Doctor, she's burning up. She's asking for water." Said Rory.

The Doctor took her hand. "Not long old girl. It'll all be over soon."

"Always liked it when you called me, old girl." She smiled.

"You want me to give my word?" Said House. "Easy. I promise."

He sounded insincere to the companions. But the Doctor seemed convinced. "Okay. I trust you. Just delete, oh er, thirty percent of the Tardis rooms, you'll free up thrust enough to make it through. Activate subroutine Sigma nine."

"And why would you tell me this?"

"Because I want to get out of here just as much as you do."

House hummed. "Yes, I can delete rooms. And I can also rid myself of vermin if I delete the room all of you are in. Goodbye Doctor. Goodbye Idris. Goodbye humans."

Amy and Rory grabbed on to anything within reach, for all the good it would do, whilst trying to think of some rude enough words to shout at the Doctor. Before they could say any though, a bright light flooded them.

House used this new boost of power to launch himself through the rift and into normal space. Before him, was an endless array of stars and worlds. He needed only decide where to find his new food source.

However, seconds later, the four vermin reappeared in the main console room.

"Probably should have mentioned." The Doctor grinned. "Built in fail safe, wired throughout the whole ship. Any living thing in deleted rooms, automatically gets deposited here."

Behind him, Rory resumed checking the Tarids, listening as she whispered things in his ear. "I don't understand. There isn't a forest here."

"Very clever Doctor." Said House. "But why should it matter. I can kill you just as easily here as in there. Fear me. I've killed hundreds of timelords."

"Fear me., I've killed all of them."

"Doctor, she's not breathing." Said Rory.

The Doctor suddenly looked worried. "Yeah, you're right. You've completely won. Oh, you can kill us in oodles of really inventive ways, but before you do kill us allow me and friends Amy and Rory to congratulate you on being an absolutely worthy opponent."

Recognising that he was staling, Amy clapped her hands "Congratulations!"

"Yep, you've defeated us. Me and my lovely friends here, and last but definitely not least, the Tardis Matrix herself, a living consciousness you ripped out of this very control room and locked up into a human body. And look at her!"

"That's enough!" Said House, raising his voice for the first time.

"No. It's never enough. You forced the Tardis into a body so she'd burn out safely a very long way away from this control room. A flesh body can't hold the Tardis Matrix and live. Look at her body, House."

"And... you think I should mourn her?"

"No. I think you should be very careful about what you let back in this control room. You took her from her home. But now she's back again. And she's free."

As he said this, stream after stream of golden energy erupted from the Tardis's body, flowing towards all the openings on the console and the walls. Clouds of green and golden light spun arounds each other as though locked in an epic struggle, but the much brighter golden energy was rapidly overwhelming it.

"No. Doctor, stop this. Argh! Stop this now." House said, in a voice that sounded chocked.

"Oh, look at my girl. Look at her go. Bigger on the inside. You see, House?" The Doctor grinned.

"Make her stop." House groaned.

But the Doctor ignored him. "Finish him, old girl!"

"Make her stop..." House gasped again, as the last of the green light left the console room. The entity was finally gone.

"Doctor?" Said the Tardis's voice. They turned to see her hovering above the stairs. Seemingly composed of translucent, golden light. "So very dark in here."

The Doctor stepped up to her. "I'm here."

"I've been looking for a word. A big, complicated word, but so sad. I've found it now."

"What word?"

"Alive. I'm alive." She smiled.

"Alive isn't sad."

"It's sad when it's over. I'll always be here, but this is when we talked, and now even that has come to an end. There's something I didn't get to say to you."

The Doctor felt a tear roll down his cheek. "Goodbye?"

She smiled once more, knowing this would be the last thing she could directly say to him. "No. I just wanted to say hello. Hello, Doctor. It's so very, very nice to meet you."

The Doctor sobbed. "Please. I don't want you to. Please."

The Tardis sighed, and her human body disappeared in one final flurry of golden light. The lights in the TARDIS finaly returned to full power and the console powered up once more.

The Doctor had to turn away from his companions for a few moments.

* * *

The Doctor spent the next few hours working under the console in complete silence.

"How's it going under there?" Said Amy.

"Just putting a firewall around the matrix. Almost done." Said the Doctor.

"Are you going to make her talk again?"

The Doctor was silent for a moment. "I can't."

"Why not?" Said Rory.

"It's spacey wacey, isn't it?" Said Amy.

"Well, actually, it's because the Time Lords discovered that if you take an eleventh dimensional matrix and fold it into a mechanical then..." Some sparks suddenly shot out of a couple of circuits. "Yes, it's spacey wacey!"

"Doctor, at the end she was saying something. She said "The only water in the forest is the river." I don't know what it means. But she said it would make sense some day. It doesn't make sense does it?"

"Not yet. But it will. Are you ok?"

"No. I watched her die. I shouldn't let it get to me, but it still does. I'm a nurse..." How it must have made the Doctor feel, having known the woman a lot longer, he couldn't imagine.

"Letting it get to you. You know what that's called? Being alive. Best thing there is. Being alive right now, that's all that counts. Nearly finished. Two more minutes, then we're off. The Eye of Orion's restful, if you like restful. I can never really get the hang of restful. What do you think, dear? Where shall we take the kids this time?"

Amy laughed. "Look at you pair. It's always you and her, isn't it, long after the rest of us have gone. A boy and his box, off to see the universe."

"Well, you say that as if it's a bad thing. But honestly, it's the best thing there is. The House deleted all the bedrooms. I should probably make you two a new bedroom. You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

As he spoke, Rory whispered something in her ear. "Ok." Said Amy. "Doctor, this time, could we lose the bunk beds?"

"No! Bunk beds are cool. A bed with a ladder. What's not great about that."

Amy gave him a look.

"It's your room." He shrugged, and keyed something on a keypad. "Out those stairs. Keep walking 'till you find it. Off you pop."

"Doctor, do you have a bedroom." Said Rory, but Amy pulled him away before he could get an answer.

The Doctor finished his work and went back up to the console. He waved the sonic at it and all the screws spun back into place. "Can you hear me?" He said, before laughing slightly. "I'm a silly old... Anyway, The Eye Of Orion, or wherever we need to go."

Whether the TARDIS had heard him, or whether there was a short circuit he didn't know, but the temporal throttle shifted into position of its own accord and the engines roared.

The Doctor laughed and danced around the console flicking buttons and levers, piloting the wonderful machine on towards a world which almost certainly was not The Eye Of Orion.

* * *

 **Next Time: The Name Of The Doctor (changed my mind)**


End file.
